Amateur Photographer - 27.09.2019

10 21 September 2019I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.ukI subscribe 0330 333 1113

THE V EWS EXPRESSED N TH S COLUMN ARE NOT NECESSAR LY THOSE OF AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER MAGA Z NE OR T MED A L M TED

In an age of super-expensive camera kit, being

able to try before you buy is a fantastic idea

View point

Jon Bentley

© JON BENTLEY

I

n telly we often hire our camera

kit, and the people I know in that

particular business say it’s booming.

I’m rarely tempted to rent gear for

my own photography though. I did hire a

fisheye lens once to take a few shots of

roundabouts,of all things, for a car

magazine, but the experience was

comprehensively underwhelming. The

rental cost was dizzyingly high; the lens

itself was an obsolete model, worn smooth

by the fingers of previous renters; and I

had to go and pick it up in person from

the rental company. I ended up wishing

I’d bought one instead.

However, I recently met the infectiously

enthusiastic Guy Thatcher, who started

Hireacamera in 2003. He told me

that renting cameras to try them out

is increasingly popular today. I thought I’d

sample Hireacamera’s service to discover

just what I’m missing – it’s worth pointing

out that there are many other rental

services offering camera kit, too.

Unlike the outfit I dealt with aeons

ago, his company is proud to offer the

latest kit. I was keen to try the new

Olympus OM-D E-M1X I’d seen at the

Photography Show earlier this year; its

newfangled car-detecting autofocus is

rather tantalising to an old petrolhead

like me. When I found myself attending a

Vintage Sports Car Club meeting at short

notice one weekend, I called the company

on the off-chance they had one available.

To my pleasant surprise they had, and

suggested I use it with an M.Zuiko

Digital ED 300mm F4 PRO lens and

teleconverter to get close to the action.

The‘try before you buy’ option

Thekit arrived impressively packed in

Peli cases the next day, with two spare

charged batteries and a 32GB memory

card. It did require a quick reset to

restore some of the factory settings but I

was soon up and running. Though the

cars on the track were rather spindly,

skeletal vintage affairs, the camera

spotted them quickly, generating

reassuring oblongs round their buzzing

forms in the electronic viewfinder.

Provided that I didn’t have the shutter on

its maximum frame rate, the system did a

good job keeping the cars in focus. The

main hiccup was that if there was more

than one car in the frame, you couldn’t

be sure which one it would concentrate

on, so going with conventional tracking

or a fixed focus point might prove

more predictable.

The rental fee for the camera and the

300mm lens with teleconverter was

£144 plus £25 carriage, which I thought

a fair price considering they cost around

five grand to buy, though there were also

returnable deposits, insurance and

damage waivers to consider.

Guy’s keen on the idea of rental as

a ‘try before you buy’ option and he’s

negotiated deals with Fujifilm and Zeiss

where you get the rental fee back if you

subsequently purchase the equipment.

But I don’t think you need to be in the

market for a new camera to justify a

rental. The experience is now so seamless

that just trying out a new piece of kit for

the pure enjoyment of it is reason enough.

Jontook this photo with the Olympus

camera and lens he hired from Hireacamera

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Jon Bentleyis a TV producer and presenter best known

forTop Gear and Channel 5’s The Gadget Show

‘Ithought I’d sample

Hireacamera’s service

to discover just what

I’m m issing ’

© MICHAEL TOPHAM

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